Page Type: languageZayse | Ethnologue

ZAY ISO 639-3

Zayse

Zaysite Autonym

A language of Ethiopia

ISO 639
zay
Alternate Names
Korisadam, Zagisite, Zaisse, Zayse-Zergulla, Zaysete, Zaysinya, Zaysse, Zeyese
Autonym
Zaysite
Population
18,500 (2007 census). 10,200 Zayse, 7,600 Zergulla. 3,000 monolinguals. Ethnic population: 17,900 (2007 census).
Location:
Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ region: Gamo-Gofa Zone, west of Lake Chamo.
Language Status
5 (Developing).
Classification
Afro-Asiatic, Omotic, North, Gonga-Gimojan, Gimojan, Ometo-Gimira, Ometo, East
Dialects
Zergulla (Zargulla, Zergullinya), Zayse. Speakers are shifting from Zergulla to Zayse (Dimmendaal and Voeltz 2007).
Typology
SOV; nominative marking; agglutinative (only suffixes), especially verbs; subject, tense, aspect, mood, causative, passive/ reciprocal and focus marked on the verb; vowel and consonant lengthening; lexical and grammatical tone (2 phonemic levels); converb use common; switch subject marker; inclusive/exclusive pronouns.
Language Use
Vigorous. Approximately 7,000 ethnic Gamo [gmv] speak Zergulla as L1. Children up to school age speak Zayse more than any other language. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Also use Amharic [amh]. Used as L2 by Mositacha [dox].
Language Development
Literacy rate in L2: 50% in Amharic [amh]. Taught in primary schools in grades 1–4 as language of instruction, higher grades will include Zayse as subject. Radio. Bible portions: 2014–2020.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Zayse
Writing
Ethiopic script [Ethi], informal usage. Latin script [Latn], official usage since 2014.

Also Spoken in

Map

Location: Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ region: Gamo-Gofa Zone, west of Lake Chamo.